Aston Villa's UEFA Cup hopes were shattered as Alexandre Mostovoi inspired Celta Vigo to pull off a shock victory against the Premiership leaders at a stunned Villa Park.

Russian star Mostovoi ran the show from start to finish in the centre of the park, scoring once and setting up the other goals for Juan Sanchez and Luboslav Penev.

Defeat was a massive blow to Villa in terms of potential revenue from a competition in which they had high hopes of at least equalling last season's run to the quarter-finals.

It was also the first major setback suffered by manager John Gregory in nine glorious months at the helm since replacing Brian Little.

The home side were unhinged by the pace, movement and neat touch of a side unbeaten in the Spanish League this season.

Villa, in contrast, struggled to break down the Spanish side even when they were reduced to 10 men early in the second half with the sending-off of Rafael Berges.

All they could manage was a penalty from Stan Collymore and long before the end the 500 Vigo fans who had made the journey to England were celebrating a famous victory.

It was Vigo who looked the more menacing and Mostovoi curled a free-kick just over the bar while Michel Salgado fired across the face of goal before the visitors deservedly went ahead in the 26th minute.

Bulgarian Penev and Mostovoi combined to release Sanchez and he beat the offside trap to give Michael Oakes no chance with a first-time effort into the far corner of the net.

Villa looked to have been given a lifeline when referee Armand Ancion adjudged that Mazinho had handled a cross from the byline by Ian Taylor three minutes later.

Up stepped Collymore - a hat-trick hero in the previous round against Stromsgodset - to send Richard Dutruel the wrong way from the resulting penalty.

However, that only served to spur the visitors to greater efforts and in the 34th minute they regained the lead on the night.

Taylor brought down Sanchez on the edge of the area and Mostovoi curled the resulting free-kick past the defensive wall into the corner of the net.

Mostovoi threatened danger every time he received the ball and another dipping effort flew inches over the bar with Oakes scrambling across his line.

Villa brought on Mark Draper for Gary Charles at the interval but they found themselves with a mountain to climb when Vigo went 3-1 ahead on the evening just three minutes into the second period.

Mostovoi floated in a free-kick after Lee Hendrie had been booked for chopping down Claude Makelele on the left flank.

Sanchez rose to get in a flick header which Oakes saved one-handed away to his left but Penev was on hand to hammer the rebound into the roof of the net.

Villa tried to force their way back into the tie and Thompson beat Dutruel with a low shot which rebounded back off the post into the hands of the Vigo keeper.

Then after 57 minutes the visitors were rocked when Berges brought down Taylor and was sent off for his second bookable offence of the evening.

Vigo still looked menacing and Oakes was forced to tip over a rising effort from Makelele while at the other end Ugo Ehiogu's header was cleared off the line by Valeri Karpin.

Joachim had a late rocket shot tipped over by Dutruel but it was a rare moment of danger to the Vigo defence.

Teams

Aston Villa: Oakes, Charles, Wright, Southgate, Ehiogu, Taylor, Collymore, Thompson, Joachim, Barry, Hendrie. Subs: Draper, Grayson, Byfield, Vassell, Rachel, Jaszczun.